street roots
2
June 7, 2013
Bureau change-up must be more than change
Time to step out of the
sidewalk quagmire
M
ayor Charlie Hales has shuffled
the deck at the city by
reassigning bureaus to each
commissioner saying,
“This will allow
commissioners to
interact, and to share
b
l
o
t
i
V
l
v
I
l
S
•
their passion and
knowledge for the
various bureaus.”
By Israel Bayer
From the outside
•‘S'z
looking in, it’s too early
Israel Bayer is the
to determine what the
executive director o f
implications might be for
Street Roots. You can
the city and its residents.
reach him at
The optimist side of me wants to think
israel@streetroots. org
or follow him on
that by reassigning bureaus, each
Twitter @israelbayer.
commissioner will be able to tackle a
range of issues, while being able to
understand at a deeper level how the city
can work in unison to come to grips with
important problems today and in the
decade to come.
The pessimist in me thinks that this
might be just a reshuffling of the deck
chairs with no clear vision for the future.
I’ll be the first to admit that change can
be a good thing, and that by changing
some of the assignments we can combat
cronyism. Saying that, it’s hard to believe
that the city will not struggle in some
areas due to such a radical changeover.
The city is coming off back-to-back one-
term mayors. This has a major impact on
citywide systems and the residents
served. Possibly, Charlie is at the
beginning of a long run as mayor and this
is one small strategic step in a much
grander plan. If not, it might well as be
more busy work, and change for the sake
of change. Time will tell.
While we’ve accomplished many great
things on the housing front, and continue
? s’"
r
bill that would essentially revive Portland’s sit-lie
law died in an Oregon Senate committee last week.
A
, That’s good news for people experiencing
homelessness and free speech advocates around the state.
In Portland, it’s far more complex.
The Portland Business Alliance was hoping the bill
would clear the way to create stricter guidelines in
Portland’s sidewalk ordinance. The city’s previous sit-lie
policies have been ruled unconstitutional on three
separate occasions. House Bill 2963 would have
prohibited the state from preempting a city’s authority to
control or regulate the sidewalks — something that played
a key role in both appellate and circuit court rulings that
struck down prior Portland sidewalk laws.
Where do we go from here?
For years, homeless youth, often called “road warriors,”
been of
at the
the
■ have
epicenter
It's not realistic to
think we can sweep
people on the streets
out of sight, out of
mind.
Portland Business
Alliance’s public policy
efforts. Downtown
businesses and some
non-profits have deemed
the street youth
unreachable and a
nuisance to the flow of traffic and to an overall friendly
business and tourism climate in downtown.
The general public at times has become fed up with the
number of “aggressive” panhandlers downtown. The
Oregonian editorial board has written on many occasions
about the confrontational behavior of the street youth and
called for government to do something about it. Mayor
Charlie Hales has signaled that panhandlers in Portland
are one of his top priorities.
The failure of House Bill 2963 certainly puts a damper
on those plans, but it certainly won’t stop them.
Street Roots believes that when there are bad actors in
our public space, homeless or not, and they are breaking
the law, law enforcement should arrest them. If
someone’s being assaulted on the streets, there’s a law
for that. If someone has an aggressive animal that’s
threatening, or off leash, there’s a law for that too. Law
enforcement should enforce those laws when necessary.
M ore so, if the city wants to curb bad behavior in public
spaces, the city should dedicate more time and resources
to mental health and homeless outreach workers and
police walking the beat.
Hom elessness in Portland’s downtown core is not going
away. Oregon is experiencing a growing number of
homeless youth in our school system and a recession that
continues to punish the poor. It’s not realistic to think we
can sweep people on the streets out of sight, out of mind.
Whatever the solutions are, they need to be met with
innovative thinking and harm-reduction models. If we’ve
learned anything over the past three decades with the
criminalization of the poor, it’s that you can’t stop poverty
with stricter laws that offer no real solutions to the
problems.
The sidewalk issue is a quagmire. The sooner we can
move on from this discussion and on to the larger issues
our city and region face concerning poverty, the closer we
will be to providing an opportunity for those asking for
change on our streets corners.
tap
to work towards providing people with a
safe and stable home, revenue for
affordable housing and homelessness has
declined. Most of this has occurred
because of the recession, the decline of
revenue from the state and bad federal
housing policy.
Locally, we’ve collectively held the line.
While many urban communities have
experienced dire shortfalls for housing
resources, Portland has found a way to
prioritize our most vulnerable residents
despite having a hole in the bucket. Part
of this is having great leadership, the
other part is having an innovative public
and private sector that prioritizes housing
and homeless services.
Saying that, the writing is on the wall.
We need leadership to generate more
resources for the many culturally diverse
communities that need access to an
affordable and safe place to call home.
Without additional resources, we are
spinning our wheels, and the gap between
the rich and the poor, both fiscal and
cultural, will only grow.
I believe that we have a range of
housing champions at City Hall, including
Dan Saltzman, who has a proven track
record of getting things done and
supporting Portland’s most vulnerable
citizens.
The question becomes this: can we turn
having great champions for housing into
new resources? Advocates, the business
community and Portland’s residents are
ready. It’s a matter of leveraging all of
these partnerships into something of .
value and not getting bogged down in
dealing with homelessness, specifically
downtown, when there are greater
challenges in housing in our city and. state.
How To Heal
By John Michael
Nature everywhere but not a drop to drink.
Poisonous minds create dry bone desserts.
You heal a child with affection
Dry bone deserts need affection.
Your feet can leave the ground,
But not forever.
Earth and sky are in you,
Run in your blood.
Nurture the soil.
Nurture the seeds.
Sing to the new shoots.
Call the weeds flowers.
But you square yourself in,
Being your very self.
Torture others with your intellect.
How sad.
The moon loves your laugh,
Laugh yours for her.
The sun shines brighter
When you dance.
I love you.
Allow me to kiss your cheek.
Hold my hand
And let’s walk
Into that dry bone desert.
Kindness for others
Heal your own wounds.
I cents
in
o w to
i
joanne
Rich Rodgers, Brad Taylor, Leo Rhodes, Ken Hawkins,
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comprehensive booklet of services for people
experiencing homelessness and poverty.
To inquire about getting guides, cail 503-228-5657.
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